Smartphone domination to encourage VoIP traffic

Take up of mobileIP telephony solutions could be boosted over the next year as smartphones begin to dominate the mobile phone market.

There will be more smartphones in the US markets than feature phones by 2011, according to a survey by global information and media company Nielsen.

Increased adoption of smartphones would widen potential access to mobile VoIP solutions as they are able to host third-party software, such as VoIP provider apps, unlike feature phones.

While just 21 per cent of American wireless subscribers were using a smartphone as of the fourth quarter of 2009, smartphones accounted for 29 per cent of the phones sold in the last six months.

Around half of those polled by Nielsen said that their next handset will be a smartphone, with falling prices, increasing capability and growing range of apps pointing to the "beginning of a groundswell" in adoption.

The use of Wi-Fi increases ten-fold for smartphone users in order to satisfy the need for fast downloads. These internet access points can also be used to transmit VoIP traffic.

Mobile VoIP solutions will be used by 288 million people by the end of 2013, In-Stat, a market research firm, estimated last month.